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CBC’s “renewal” cuts budget, expands newscasts

Today the CBC announced Part 17 of its huge cost-cutting operation, in which 70 people in its English news department lose their jobs.

The headlines at CBC talk about “24-hour coverage” and “better service” without giving too many details of what that means. CP has the first actual detail: regional supper-hour newscasts will be expanded to 90 minutes (you’ll recall they were just recently expanded from half an hour to an hour), and would start at 5pm instead of 6. Coronation Street would fill the half-hour betwen 6:30 and 7.

This certainly makes sense for Montreal, which currently has three English-language local newscasts competing against each other at 6pm (and two of them always losing that battle). Starting earlier might be the ticket to a larger audience.

Of course the question remains how CBC is supposed to have more product with a smaller staff. We’ll find that out over the coming months.